John Adams is a trial lawyer in the Dallas office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. John has significant experience in all phases of litigation, from pre-suit strategy to trials and appeals. His experience spans numerous industries, including oil and gas, real estate, and technology. For example, he has successfully litigated cases involving asset purchase agreements; partnership disputes; executive compensation; trade secrets; non-compete agreements; natural gas gathering agreements; mineral leases; receiverships; securities; and class actions.
John is recognized by Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America for his work in Commercial Litigation from 2021-2024, and is named in D Magazine’s 2023 Best Lawyers Under 40 list. Before joining Gibson, Dunn Crutcher, John worked at a Chambers-ranked litigation boutique in Dallas, served as a law clerk for the United States District Court in the Western District of Texas, and worked for the preeminent legal writer, Bryan Garner.
Judge, United States District Court, Southern District of Florida
Biography
On April 4, 2019, Judge Altman was confirmed to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. At 36, he became the youngest federal district court judge in the country—and the youngest federal judge ever appointed in the Southern District of Florida.
Judge Altman received a BA from Columbia University, where he played quarterback on the football team and pitched for the baseball team—earning All-Ivy honors. Judge Altman received his JD from the Yale Law School, where he was projects editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, the Judge clerked on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Stanley Marcus.
Judge Altman then became a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, where he twice received the Director of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys’ Award for Superior Performance by a federal prosecutor. In 2013, Judge Altman was named “Federal Prosecutor of the Year” by the Miami-Dade Chiefs of Police and the Law Enforcement Officers’ Charitable Foundation.
In 2014, Judge Altman became a partner at the Miami law firm of Podhurst Orseck, where he represented the victims of airplane crashes and bank fraud conspiracies.
U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Michigan, U.S. Department of Justice
Biography
Matthew Schneider is the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
As the United States Attorney, Mr. Schneider is the chief federal law enforcement official in the Eastern District of Michigan, which contains approximately 6.5 million people in 34 counties. The office is widely recognized for significant prosecutions involving international terrorism, violent crime, public corruption, environmental crime, financial fraud, drug trafficking, civil rights and numerous other criminal and civil matters. As the United States Attorney, Mr. Schneider manages more than 230 employees, including approximately 120 Assistant U.S. Attorneys in Detroit, Flint and Bay City.
Prior to his appointment, Schneider was the Chief Deputy Attorney General for the State of Michigan. In that position, he supervised the office’s 40,000 ongoing cases and managed a budget of over $100 million in taxpayer funds. He had previously served as Chief Legal Counsel for the Michigan Office of Attorney General, where he was the lead counsel representing the Governor and the State of Michigan in the City of Detroit federal bankruptcy case.
Schneider previously served as the Michigan Supreme Court’s Chief of Staff and General Counsel. Schneider provided overall direction for the administration of Michigan’s Judicial Branch of government and served as chief legal counsel to the Chief Justice and the Justices.
Schneider is a former Assistant United States Attorney in Detroit. He focused on prosecuting corrupt public officials and members of organized crime, as well as street gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs. He also handled an anti-terrorism caseload.
Prior to becoming a federal prosecutor, Schneider served as Senior Advisor and Assistant General Counsel in the White House Budget Office. He previously practiced international law with the Washington, D.C. firm of Wiley Rein LLP, where he represented American companies in suits against foreign governments for unfair business and trade actions.
Schneider has been an adjunct law professor for several years and has spoken and written on numerous aspects of constitutional law and criminal procedure. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University’s James Madison College. He is originally from Frankenmuth, Michigan.
Logan Beirne is an American entrepreneur, attorney, businessman, and writer. He currently serves as Chief Legal Officer of Strive Asset Management and teaches at Yale Law School. His debut book, Blood of Tyrants: George Washington and the Forging of the Presidency, was a national bestseller and won the Colby Award for best military history.
Beirne founded the multinational legal technology company Matterhorn Transactions, Inc. in 2011, providing data analytics to thousands of law firms across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. He successfully led the company to its acquisition by DealPulse, Inc. in 2023. In addition to Matterhorn, Beirne has co-founded and invested in several other businesses, including the museum systems company Collection Harbor and the music software firm Artusi Music, Inc.
A Fulbright Scholar at Queen's University in Belfast, Beirne studied economics before earning his J.D. from Yale Law School. At Yale, he received the Edgar M. Cullen Prize for constitutional scholarship and an Olin Fellowship for his work on presidential power.
Before founding Matterhorn, Beirne worked at GE Capital's private equity arm, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and J.P. Morgan & Co.
Clint Bolick was appointed by Governor Doug Ducey in January 2016 to serve on the Arizona Supreme Court and was retained by the voters in 2018 and 2024.
Prior to joining the Court, Justice Bolick litigated constitutional cases in state and federal courts from coast to coast, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Among other positions, he served as Vice President for Litigation at the Goldwater Institute and as Co-founder and Vice President for Litigation at the Institute for Justice. He has litigated in support of school choice, freedom of enterprise, private property rights, freedom of speech, and federalism, and against racial classifications and government subsidies.
Justice Bolick received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of California at Davis, where he has been recognized as a distinguished alumnus, and his Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Drew University. He serves as a research fellow with the Hoover Institution. Among other honors, he was named one of the 90 Greatest DC Lawyers in the Last 30 Years by Legal Times in 2008, received a Bradley Prize in 2006, and was recognized as one of the nation’s three lawyers of the year by American Lawyer in 2002 for his successful defense of school vouchers in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris.
Justice Bolick is a prolific author of a dozen books and hundreds of articles. Among his most recent books are Unshackled: Freeing America’s K-12 Education System: Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, co-authored with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush; and David’s Hammer: The Case for an Activist Judiciary. Bolick serves as an adjunct professor of constitutional law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law and has served as a lecturer at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Director of the Center for Judicial Engagement, Institute for Justice
Biography
Anthony Sanders is the Director of the Center for Judicial Engagement (CJE) at the Institute for Justice and a senior attorney. He joined IJ in 2010. As CJE’s director, he educates the public about the proper role of judges in enforcing constitutional limits on the size and scope of government. As a senior attorney he litigates cutting-edge constitutional cases protecting economic liberty, private property, freedom of speech and other individual liberties in both federal and state courts across the country.
One area of Anthony’s expertise is on using state constitutions to protect individual rights. He is the author of the book, published by University of Michigan Press, Baby Ninth Amendments: How Americans Embraced Unenumerated Rights and Why It Matters. He has also written several law review articles on state constitutional law, unenumerated rights, judicial review, economic liberty, property rights, international law, and other subjects. His work has appeared in publications such as the Iowa Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, American University Law Review, and Rutgers Law Review, and he has published opinion pieces in leading media outlets across the country. Further, he frequently speaks to various audiences on these matters and others, including judicial engagement, free speech, civil forfeiture, and the continuing importance of Magna Carta. Additionally, he hosts the weekly Short Circuit podcast, which often records live in front of law student audiences.
Anthony has litigated several cases in various state courts on state constitutional protections, as well as in federal courts on matters such as economic liberty, free speech, administrative law, and fines and fees abuse. Prior to joining IJ, Anthony served as a law clerk to Justice W. William Leaphart on the Montana Supreme Court. Anthony also worked for several years in private practice in Chicago where he was an active member of the Chicago Bar Association and chaired its Civil Rights Committee.
Anthony received his law degree cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2004, where he served as an articles submission editor for the Minnesota Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A dual U.S. and U.K. citizen, Anthony grew up on the islands of Vashon in Washington State, and Alderney in the British Channel Islands.
The Honorable Jennifer M. Perkins began service on the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, on October 30, 2017. At the time of her appointment by Governor Douglas Ducey, Judge Perkins was Assistant Solicitor General for the State of Arizona.
Judge Perkins was born in Portales, New Mexico, and primarily raised in Albuquerque. She attended the prestigious Albuquerque Academy from 1988-1995, before moving to Washington D.C. to attend the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University as a National Merit Scholar. Therafter, she relocated again to Dallas, Texas, and earned her juris doctor from the SMU Dedman School of Law, graduating cum laude in 2002.
Judge Perkins started her career at the law firm of Browning & Peifer (now Peifer, Hanson, Mullins, and Baker) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While there, she litigated complex commercial matters including class action plaintiff and defense work, and assisted with employment and contract litigation. In 2003, the judge accompanied the Honorable James O. Browning in transitioning to the federal district court bench, serving as his first law clerk.
After her clerkship, Judge Perkins moved to Arizona to work for the Institute for Justice, Arizona Chapter, a public interest law firm. She spent five years with IJ-AZ litigating civil rights cases in Arizona and across the country. In 2009, the judge became Disciplinary Counsel for the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct, where she reviewed and prosecuted ethics complaints against state court judges throughout Arizona. After five years serving the state in this capacity, Judge Perkins entered private practice by joining an appellate law firm in Phoenix. While there, she worked on state and federal appeals involving a wide range of legal subjects, including complex business disputes, property rights, judicial ethics, and personal injury matters.
In January 2015, Judge Perkins joined the Office of the Arizona Attorney General to serve as the first Assistant Solicitor General; in that capacity, she was responsible for oversight of Attorney General Opinions and served as ethics counsel to the entire office. In addition to these two primary roles, the judge assisted on a variety of matters including trial and appellate litigation of election-related matters; federal appellate litigation with the Federalism Unit; state criminal appeals; and drafting amicus briefs on behalf of Arizona in state and federal courts.
Trial Lawyer, Osborn Maledon, P.A., Former Judge, Arizona Superior Court
Biography
James focuses his practice on trial and appellate representation in complex commercial litigation and elections disputes. He also serves as arbitrator, mediator, and special master.
Before joining the firm, James served as a judge on the Arizona Superior Court, where he presided over hundreds of jury trials, bench trials, evidentiary hearings, and oral arguments. The civil trials he oversaw included commercial torts, consumer fraud, contract, professional malpractice, and personal injury claims. He also handled many election matters involving challenges to candidates and their nominating petitions, disputes regarding initiative descriptions and petitions, and challenges to statutes’ constitutionality. While on the bench, James also conducted settlement conferences for cases before other judges. He would work collaboratively with the lawyers and parties to consider the strengths and weaknesses of each side’s case and, more importantly, find solutions that avoided the burden and expense of trial. James is on the AAA panel of arbitration neutrals.
Before his judicial appointment, James was a partner in an international law firm and specialized in consumer-facing class action defense plus commercial litigation. He appeared in federal and state trial and appellate courts, and handled arbitration disputes, throughout the country.
James often writes on issues about evidence and civil procedure. Before taking the bench, he also wrote extensively about RICO and class action matters.
James is a member of the State Bar of Arizona Civil Jury Instructions Committee and formerly served on the Civil Practice and Procedure Committee.
Mike has three decades of IP enforcement experience. He has represented clients in more than 270 intellectual property cases in state and federal courts in California and 23 other states and before the Trademark Trials and Appeals Board.
Mike’s practice includes patent, trademark, trade secret, and copyright cases. His cases have spanned a wide range of industries and technologies, including consumer products, semiconductors, tactical products, medical devices, computer software, apparel, restaurants, and financial services. He has represented brand-name companies including Oakley, Luxottica, Tesla, 5.11 Tactical, ITT, Makita, Pacific Life Insurance Company, Carl’s Jr., Microsemi, NASCAR, Daytona International Speedway, Game Show Network, Razor, Volcom, Specialized Bicycle, Mexicana Airlines, and SRS Labs, among others.
Mike was a partner at Knobbe Martens for more than two decades. At Knobbe, Mike served as co-chair of the Litigation Department. He had previously served as co-chair of the Trademark/Brand Protection group and the Consumer Products practice group.
World Trademark Review 1000 has several times named Mike a “Leading Trademark Lawyer." In the 2022 edition, WTR 1000 commended him for his “advanced state of preparedness,” and included a client remark that, “there’s nothing he hasn’t seen.”
In the 2021 edition, WTR described him as a “backbone of [his former firm's] litigation practice,” and noted his ability to litigate “cases associated with all categories of IP rights.”
In the 2020 edition, WTR described him as having been “on the cutting edge of enforcement for three decades.” In that edition, a client said he was “a sophisticated and thoughtful professional who understands how to get things done.”
In 2023, Legal 500 named Mike to its list of preeminent patent litigators. Thompson/Reuters has regularly named him a “Southern California Super Lawyer” in the category of IP litigation since 2004.
He frequently speaks on intellectual property litigation subjects, including to the AIPLA, OCBA, OCIPLA, LAIPLA, ABA, ACC, INTA, Harvard Law School Association, Harvard Business School Association, MIT Alumni Association, and the Federalist Society. Mike’s articles on IP subjects have been featured in publications including American Marketer, Luxury Roundtable, IP Watchdog, Law 360, IP 360, The Trademark Lawyer, TheLos Angeles Daily Journal, The Recorder, ABA Landslide, Orange County Business Journal, Engage, and Stanford Technology Review.
Mike has taught as an adjunct professor at Whittier School of Law and served as a JAG with the California State Military Reserve. For 16 years, he served as a Reserve Deputy with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, retiring as a Lieutenant.
Mike serves on the Harvard Law School Association’s Senior Advisory Committee, is a board member of the Federal Bar Association of Orange County, and the vice-chair of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society's Intellectual Property Practice Group. He is a former member of Law360's Intellectual Property Editorial Board, a former member and former Secretary of the Harvard Law School Association's Executive Committee, and a former president of the Harvard Law School Association of Orange County.
Judge, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
Biography
John W. Holcomb is a U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California, Southern Division, in Santa Ana, California. Judge Holcomb was nominated for that position by President Donald J. Trump in November 2019 and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in September 2020.
Judge Holcomb earned his S.B. in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984. For the next five years, Judge Holcomb served as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy, including assignments aboard the battleship U.S.S. New Jersey (BB62) and with the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. In 1993, Judge Holcomb received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School. Judge Holcomb then served as a law clerk for Judge Ronald Barliant of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Thereafter, Judge Holcomb joined Irell & Manella LLP as an associate, practicing bankruptcy law and general civil litigation. In 1997, Judge Holcomb joined the intellectual property law firm of Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, LLP, and he was elevated to partner in 2002. As a partner at Knobbe Martens, Judge Holcomb participated in several speaking engagements regarding the intersection of intellectual property and bankruptcy law. In 2014, Judge Holcomb co-authored the chapter on U.S. Law in Licenses and Insolvency, A Practical Guide to the Effects of Insolvency on IP License Agreements, which was published by the International Bar Association. Judge Holcomb retired from Knobbe Martens in 2018, and he briefly practiced as a bankruptcy and litigation sole-practitioner before joining the firm Greenberg Gross LLP as a partner in 2019.
Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law (Retired)
Biography
Gail Heriot is a recently retired law professor from the University of San Diego. She also served as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2007 to 2025. She is also the chairman of the board of the American Civil Rights Project and the chair emerita of the Civil Rights practice group at the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy.
Professor Heriot is a prolific writer in the area of civil rights. She is the author of many law review articles. She is also the editor (along with Maimon Schwarzschild) of the 2021 anthology, A Dubious Expediency: How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education. Her upcoming book is entitled, Why We Walk on Eggshell: How Our Civil Rights Laws Helped Bring About the Woke Era—And the Trump Era, Too.
Her writings for a general audience have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the National Review and many other newspapers and magazines.
In 1996, she co-chaired the successful “Yes on Proposition 209” campaign, which amended the California Constitution to prohibit state-sponsored discrimination or preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. In 2020, she co-chaired the “No on Proposition 16” campaign, which successfully prevented Proposition 209’s repeal.
